THE KING’S BUSINESS
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and most actual sense an historic per sonality of the period in which He is said to have lived. Amongst all the great historic personalities of the past, and towering far above the greatest of these, stands the solitary figure of the man from Galilee, who was even tually recognized -by His most inti mate friends and disciples not only as a man approved of God, but also aS a manifestation of the Divine in human form.” The story of this solitary figure is told by the Evangelists. For the pur pose of the simplest possible approach of the subject wé shall consider the story as it is given by Luke. There are several reasons why we do this. In the first place, Prof. Harnack, Sir William Ramsay and others have in recent years subjected the writings of Luké to a most thorough and search ing criticism, with the result that they have been forced to recognize Dr. Luke as a historian of the first class. Their discoveries in connection with this investigation have literally revo lutionized New Testament criticism. In the second place, Luke’s outlook on life and his temper of mind pecu liarly fitted him to address the modern mind. Hfe was a scientist, having had the advantage of a university train ing, and he approached his story ac cording to the best methods of science. In his introduction to his Gospel he tells us that he went back to the be ginning of things and investigated everything accurately and then stated it in an orderly or systematic narra tive. The investigations- of a mod ern scientist could not be more accu rately and suggestively described. And he tells us that all this was done in order that men might know the cer tainty concerning the things wherein they were instructed. This scientist of the first century was just as anx ious that men should have a solid basis for their faith as we men of the 20th.
at least, He must be the approach to life and its meanings—no scientific in terpretation of life can ignore Him. On the contrary, every truly scientific philosophy of life must approach the problem through Him. He is the oak of human life which gives its deepest and most perfect expression and interpretation. This Jesus is the heart of Christian doctrine and is Himself Christianity. All our interpretations must he brought into the light of His pres ence and tested there. He stands in the midst of the centuries as our last court of appeal. So far as life is con cerned, there is nothing beyond Him. He is ' unquestionably the final word. But you say, “Jesus is 1900 years away from us. How can we feel sure that we are reaching the real Jesus?” We shall endeavor to do this in the most natural and simple way possible. Recently there has been an attempt made to show that Jesus never lived. This attempt has been met, and most crushingly discredited by some of the foremost scholars in the world to-day. Dr. T. J. Thorburn’s book on the sub ject is a fair representative of the an swers made. He contends that it is as easy to prove that the apostle Paul was a real historic character as it is to prove that Alexander the Great ever lived. Then he shows that the Christ of St. Paul is identical with the Jesus of the first three Gospels and that the Jesus of these Gospels is a historical person. The proof of this conclusion is found not only in the New Testament but also in Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius and Pliny the Younger. Having fully answered the arguments of Prof. Drews and others, Dr. Thorburn closes by saying, “We may, therefore, with all confidence and well-grounded assurance, con clude, after making a careful survey of the evidence which we have passed in review, that Jesus is in the truest
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